Meeting Is Set to Choose Pope

Conclave Starts Tuesday

The papal conclave to elect a new head of the Catholic Church begins in Vatican City Tuesday and workers have been putting the finishing touches on the Sistine Chapel to make sure it's ready for the occasion.

By

Stacy Meichtry And

John D. Stoll

Updated March 11, 2013 12:01 a.m. ET

ROME—The conclave to elect the next pope will begin Tuesday, the Vatican said, ending speculation over a timetable for the highly anticipated process.

The conclave to elect the next pope will begin Tuesday. John Stoll reports on The News Hub. Photo: AP.

Friday's statement comes more than a week after Pope Benedict XVI left the Vatican in the first papal resignation in six centuries. In recent days, cardinals have been holding preliminary meetings—known as General Congregation—in Rome to discuss the state of the Roman Catholic Church, spend time in prayer and lay out the priorities for their next leader.

Voting Process

The voting by cardinals to elect the next pope takes place behind the locked doors of the Vatican's Sistine Chapel.

On Tuesday the voting will start for the new pope. WSJ's John Stoll takes a look at preparations. Via #WorldStream. Image: Getty Images.

The conclave will begin Tuesday afternoon as Cardinals enter Sistine Chapel after celebrating a pre-conclave Mass. The chapel is currently being prepared for the event, including the installation of a communications shield that will block electronic communications.

Some Vatican watchers have speculated that this could mark the first election of an African pope, such as Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana. But in interviews, cardinals have named Cardinal Angelo Scola from Milan, Cardinal Marc Ouelett from Canada, Cardinal Odilo Scherer of São Paolo, Brazil, and the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan. Dozens of cardinals, however, could be in the running.

The population of Catholics around the world has grown dramatically and shifted southward over the last century, while the cardinals who elect the pope have also grown in number and diversity but remain mostly European.

Past Conclaves

Once all of the cardinals had entered the Sistine Chapel in 1939, Vatican employees closed the chapel's great door, leaving the cardinals locked inside to elect a successor to Pope Pius XI. Gamma-Keystone via Getty Images

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The conclave comes at a critical time for the Catholic church, as its flock is dwindling in Europe, its historic center, while growing in Asia and Africa. The Roman Curia, the decision-making center of the Vatican, is divided after scandals and infighting. A widespread sex-abuse crisis has hurt the credibility of church leadership world-wide.

The church's geographic shift has altered the makeup of the College of Cardinals. Whereas a century ago there were only a couple non-Europeans in the mix, today a substantial chunk of the group comes from North America, as well as Asia, South America and Africa.

Video

Those changes have been visible in recent days as the more outspoken style of some U.S. cardinals has met resistance from more typically tight-lipped Vatican officials. On Wednesday, the North American contingent canceled a daily press briefing, citing concerns by the General Congregation about leaks to the Italian press.

Some cardinals have resorted to Twitter accounts, blog posts or radio appearances to reach parishioners with messages back home.

In a blog post published Friday, Cardinal Dolan said cardinals have spent the past few days discussing issues including preaching, charity, defending the dignity of marriage and protecting life. He said the cardinals have also discussed corruption in the Vatican, sexual abuse and money, but those topics haven't dominated the agenda.

Conclaves were installed centuries ago in order to rid the voting process from outside influence. Next week's will be the tenth since 1903.

A total of 115 cardinals will be involved in the process of choosing the new pope, with only those under the age of 80 at the time of Benedict XVI's official resignation being eligible to vote. They will meet in the Sistine Chapel and be housed in a closely monitored residence inside the Vatican city, the Casa Santa Marta.

While some papal elections centuries back lasted years, conclaves held in the past century have wrapped up in two to five days. The March 12 start gives cardinals time to choose a new pope before the March 24 beginning of Holy Week. Several cardinals gathered here have expressed a desire to spend the final week of the month at home with parishioners, rather than in Rome.

The cardinals can vote up to four times a day with breaks for prayer if the process extends beyond a few days. In order to become the new pontiff, a candidate must secure two-thirds support—in this case, 77 votes.

If a round of voting comes up short, ballots are burned and black smoke rises from a stovepipe installed at the chapel. The public knows when a new pontiff has been selected because white smoke rises from the chimney and the basilica's bells toll.

Other clouds have gathered over this year's conclave.

Last year, Benedict XVI ordered three cardinals to carry out an inquiry into a leaks scandal that exposed infighting and wasteful spending by top officials inside the Vatican. The pope's former butler was convicted by a Vatican court for stealing papal letters that offered a glimpse at the disarray. He was pardoned by the former pope in December.

The findings of the three cardinals—who won't participate in the conclave because they are over 80—are contained in a lengthy tome that is now locked in a safe in the former pope's sealed apartments. This is an area that only Benedict XVI's successor can enter.

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